Apricots

Hi, I have fifteen varieties of fruit trees here and every year something attacks my apricots to the point that I am lucky the two are still even alive. They start out great in the spring time. And then entire branches suddenly schrivel up and die.
I am assuming it is some kind of beetle larvae that is only attacking the apricots.
But I don't know what to do about it. There seems to be a problem with what you can spary apricots with? And/or what is sprayed on the trees close to them causing them damage? My friend down the road has a large variety of apples and one huge apricot. They say they can't spray it with the same stuff they use on the apples, that those sprays will kill the apricot.
Mine are next to a Black Mission Fig and French Prune, and a Nectorine. Since my fruit trees do double duty as afternoon shade for the house, they are all close together in one long row.
I love apricots and would really like to be able to pick some this year!
What does one spray apricots with?

Was your yard ever a part of an orchard?

Bacterial canker can cause entire branches to die. Young trees are more susceptible than older ones. Here's some information on this disease:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r5101011.html

Another possibility is Cytospora canker. You didn't mention any other symptoms other than the branches dying. See if the description of the symptoms for this fungal disease match what your apricot looks like.
http://www.essortment.com/all/cytosporacanke_rgaf.htm

This next link may only serve to confuse you more, but if you take the time to click on the causal agent, you can get some very good information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apricot_diseases

You can also take samples to your local UC Cooperative Extension Service agent. Take as large a sample as you can and place it into a plastic bag.
http://ucanr.org/ce.cfm

You spoke of sprays for fruit trees. From this next link, you can download a guide to fruit tree sprays. It comes form British Columbia, but it is still useful in California.
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/treefrt/homegdn/apricots.htm

Thanks bettydee, I would never have thought of a fungal disease! I will spray for that, just in case. I have been focusing on insects. The French Prune right next to them, gets covered with aphids brought by ants if I don't stay on top of things. So I couldn't figure out why the apricots were the only trees affected by whatever it is.
They are currently blooming, so I am very hopefull this year! I never noticed any orange fungus, but I may not have noticed that. But I did notice lots of amber sap, which is why I was misled into thinking it was a beetle larvae.
And now that I think of it, my neighbors are having more of a problem with spanish moss and lichens in their apples and were told that anything they used to treat it would kill their apricots, pears, and plums.

If you take a sample to the extension service, they will want the part where it transitions from healthy to dead - you can't tell much from already dead. Photos will work, too, if they are clear enough. The Extension Service here likes a series of photos - group with adjacent plants/trees, ground underneath plant/tree, whole tree, closeup of affected area of tree.

You suspected an insect. Were there holes with gummy sap oozing out? Peach tree borer bothers Apricots here, even more than the Peaches. Here is Colorado's extension service info on Peach Tree Borer:
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05566.html
It says they are usually found near the base of the tree, but I have seen the wounds in crotches and other cracks higher up on Apricots.

The kookie thing is, not a single one of my other fruit trees, including my peach and nectorine, are affected by what ever keeps trying to kill my apricots every year!! I also have cherries and plums. I spray for peach leaf curl every winter and I spray for the ants that bring the aphids to the plum, cherries, and prune trees.
This year I will cut off a branch with both the living portion and the dead portion and take is to the local experts. There must be one around here somewhere, ha, ha, I am in the middle of apple tree country. Surrounded by apple orchards for miles! Many of them grow apples for Martinelli's Apple Juice. Along with a fine selection of eating apples. Which is why I have never bothered to plant apples ;-)
But it sure would be nice to finally pick some apricots!

This poor old apricot has been weeping sap for a decade - we keep expecting it to die. My mother fished a couple of larva out of holes years ago, and I have never seen the orange stuff you get with Cytospora Canker, so I've always assumed it was all peach borer damage. However, I suppose it could have both and I just missed the orange stage. It seldom has Apricots, but not because of the sap. It blooms too early and gets hit by frost.